What good CFA flashcards need to do

CFA flashcards are most useful when they prepare you to make a decision from a vignette, not when they merely test whether you can recognise a formula. A strong card has one answerable task, uses CFA terminology, and makes the candidate state what the result means.

For example, “What is modified duration?” is weaker than “A bond has modified duration of 6.2 and its yield rises by 25 basis points. Estimate the percentage price change.” The second card tests setup, units and interpretation.

A workable deck should contain four types of cards:

  • Definitions: precise meanings such as weak-form market efficiency or a Type I error.
  • Formula selection: which formula applies and what each input means.
  • Calculation steps: a short numerical problem with a checkable answer.
  • Vignette decisions: what action follows from the facts, including Ethics and Standards implications.

Do not put an entire topic on one card. Split a long reading into individual prompts. Keep the source context on the back where it helps you recognise the situation, but keep the answer short enough to retrieve under time pressure.

A CFA deck you can study today

MySummaries can turn a revision board covering the CFA curriculum into a focused deck rather than a list of copied paragraphs. This example mixes quantitative methods, financial statement analysis, fixed income, derivatives, portfolio management and Ethics because CFA questions require you to change method when the facts change.

A CFA flashcard deck on this material ends up looking like this:

Cards — CFA — Applied Core Review18 due

CAPM: What is the expected return when the risk-free rate is 3%, beta is 1.2 and the expected market return is 8%?

3% + 1.2 × (8% − 3%) = 9%. The equity risk premium is 5%.

NPV: What decision rule applies when a project has a positive NPV at the required rate of return?Accept it, assuming the cash flows and required return are appropriate. A positive NPV adds value relative to the required return.
Modified duration: A bond has modified duration of 6.0 and its yield rises by 0.20%. Estimate the percentage price change.Approximately −6.0 × 0.002 = −1.20%, ignoring convexity. Price falls when yield rises.
Working capital: What is the cash-flow effect of an increase in operating working capital, all else equal?It is a cash outflow and reduces free cash flow. An increase ties up cash in the business.
Inventory: What is inventory turnover when cost of goods sold is $900,000 and average inventory is $150,000?6.0 times: $900,000 ÷ $150,000.
Put–call parity: For European options on a non-dividend-paying asset, state the relationship.C + PV(K) = P + S₀. The call plus the present value of the strike equals the put plus the spot price.
Sharpe ratio: What does the Sharpe ratio measure?Excess portfolio return per unit of total risk: (Rₚ − Rf) ÷ σₚ.
Geometric mean: Why is the geometric mean preferred for describing compound investment growth over several periods?It incorporates compounding and gives the constant per-period rate that produces the same total growth.
Hypothesis testing: What is a Type I error?Rejecting a true null hypothesis. It is a false positive.
Regression: What does the slope coefficient represent in a simple linear regression of an asset's return on the market return?The estimated change in the asset's return for a one-unit change in the market return, subject to the model's assumptions.
WACC: Why is the after-tax cost of debt used in WACC?Interest expense is generally tax-deductible, so the relevant debt cost is Kd × (1 − tax rate), subject to the applicable tax assumptions.
Bond pricing: What happens to the price of a fixed-rate bond when its required yield increases, with cash flows unchanged?Its price decreases because the unchanged future cash flows are discounted at a higher rate.
Forward pricing: With no income or storage costs, what is the no-arbitrage forward price for an asset with spot price S₀ and annual effective risk-free rate r over T years?F₀(T) = S₀(1 + r)^T. The exact convention must match the rate given.
Financial reporting: What does a higher inventory turnover generally suggest, if the accounting methods and business context are comparable?Inventory is being sold more quickly. Check margins, stock-outs and industry context before treating it as favourable.
Market efficiency: What does weak-form market efficiency imply?Prices reflect information in past market trading data, so technical analysis should not consistently produce abnormal risk-adjusted returns.
Mosaic theory: May an analyst reach an investment conclusion using public information and non-material non-public information?Yes, provided the information is not material non-public information and the analyst does not breach a duty or applicable law. The conclusion must still be supportable.
Standard III(A): What is the core duty covered by Loyalty, Prudence and Care?Members and candidates must act for the benefit of their clients, place client interests before their employer's or their own interests, and exercise prudence and care.
Ethics vignette: An analyst receives material non-public information from a company employee. What should the analyst do before trading or recommending the security?Do not trade or cause others to trade. Restrict the information, follow the firm's procedures and seek compliance guidance; the information must not be used until public or otherwise permitted.
This is a focused CFA deck with one retrievable fact or decision on each card.

The first card should make you calculate, not just recite CAPM. The modified-duration card checks that 0.20% is entered as 0.002, while the inventory card checks whether you can calculate a ratio without adding unnecessary steps. In the Ethics cards, the answer includes the action and the reason; naming a Standard without applying it to the facts is not enough.

Cut the deck from must-know material

A large curriculum can produce thousands of possible prompts. Start with a core list and only add detail when a question, mock exam or error shows that the detail matters. The core below is deliberately compact: it gives you the facts from which the deck was cut.

A board's must-know list for this deck looks like this:

What to coverCFA — Applied Core Review
CAPM: E(Rᵢ) = Rf + βᵢ[E(Rₘ) − Rf]; calculate the premium before multiplying by beta
Modified duration: ΔP/P ≈ −ModDur × Δy, with the yield change expressed as a decimal
Put–call parity for European options on a non-dividend-paying asset: C + PV(K) = P + S₀
Free-cash-flow interpretation: an increase in operating working capital is a cash use
Ethics application: identify the duty, restrict action where required, and connect the conclusion to the facts rather than naming a Standard alone
This is the compact CFA checklist used to decide which facts deserve repeated cards.

Use the official CFA Institute curriculum for your registered level and current learning outcomes. Level-specific topic emphasis, policies and exam information can change, so check the official source rather than building a plan around an assumed weighting or question count.

How to review the deck

1. Review by retrieval, not rereading

Look at the question, hide the answer and write or say the result before revealing it. For a formula card, write the formula, substitute the values and state the direction of the result. For an Ethics card, identify the relevant duty and the action first.

Grade the card honestly:

  • Again: you could not start, used the wrong formula or reached the wrong conclusion.
  • Hard: you reached the answer slowly or needed to reconstruct a key step.
  • Good: you answered accurately with an efficient explanation.
  • Easy: the answer was immediate and precise.

“Almost right” is not the same as secure. A sign error in duration, a percentage-versus-decimal error or an unsupported Ethics assumption should normally receive Again or Hard.

2. Add context only after the fact is stable

Once you know the core fact, attach a short vignette. Change one input at a time: a yield increase instead of a decrease, a dividend-paying asset instead of a non-dividend-paying one, or public information instead of material non-public information. This forces you to select the method from the facts.

3. Turn repeated misses into remediation

Do not keep rewriting the whole topic after losing one mark. Record the exact failure: wrong formula, wrong unit, forgotten exception, calculation slip or unsupported assumption. Then create one smaller card that attacks that failure directly.

A remediation tray for the deck might contain this card:

Remediation tray

You lost this card twice: A bond has modified duration 6.0 and yield rises 0.20%. Give the approximate price change, show the decimal conversion, and state the direction.

Add cardDismiss
This remediation card targets a repeated unit and sign error rather than reopening the whole fixed-income chapter.

4. Practise under time pressure

Flashcards do not replace item sets and discrete questions. After a review session, complete a short timed batch using unfamiliar facts. Mark whether the error came from knowledge, calculation, reading the command word or prioritising the information in the vignette.

For constructed responses or spoken explanations, use a compact order: identify the task, extract relevant facts, show the method, calculate, interpret the result and state limitations or Ethics implications where relevant. Avoid formula dumping. A formula earns its place only when you explain what its output means for the decision.

5. Keep the deck small enough to revisit

A deck that is too large becomes a second textbook. Suspend duplicate cards, combine cards that test the same single fact and remove facts you can consistently retrieve. Keep separate cards for commonly confused pairs, such as total risk versus downside risk or a cash inflow versus an increase in working capital.

The aim is not to memorise every sentence in the curriculum. It is to retrieve the correct definition or method quickly, apply it only to the facts supplied and communicate the conclusion in CFA language.

How MySummaries helps

MySummaries lets you build the board from your own CFA notes, then generate a focused deck, spaced review queue and remediation cards from the mistakes you actually make. That keeps your flashcards connected to your curriculum source and your practice results rather than to a generic list of finance facts.